Courteney Cox

Courteney Bass Cox (previously Courteney Cox Arquette; born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and filmmaker. She gained international recognition for her starring role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends (1994–2004), for which she received seven Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, of which she won one. Cox received further recognition for starring as Gale Weathers in the horror film franchise Scream (1996–present). She also starred as Lauren Miller in the NBC sitcom Family Ties (1987–1989), Lucy Spiller on the FX drama series Dirt (2007–2008), and as Jules Cobb on the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town (2009–2015), the lattermost of which earned her nominations at the Golden Globe Awards and the Critics' Choice Awards. Cox's other film credits include the action fantasy Masters of the Universe (1987), the comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), the animated comedy Barnyard (2006), the fantasy comedy Bedtime Stories (2008), and the independent drama Mothers and Daughters (2016). She owns the production company Coquette Productions, which was created by Cox and her then-husband David Arquette. She also worked as a director on her sitcom Cougar Town, the television drama film TalhotBlond (2012), and the black comedy drama film Just Before I Go (2014). Cox was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox and Courteney Copeland ( Bass). Cox has two older sisters, Virginia and Dorothy, and an older brother, Richard Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland and The Police drummer Stewart Copeland). After graduating from Mountain Brook High School, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C. (now part of George Washington University), but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Cox has English and Norman ancestry; researching her family tree for the series Who Do You Think You Are?, Cox discovered she was a direct descendant of William the Conqueror and Edward I of England.